Russian company hands out St George's ribbons in Minsk (photo)
The controversial ribbons are handed out at the fuel stations owned by Russian oil company TНК-ВР.
“When I was refuelling at 20 Zhukava street, they gave me a flag and a ribbon. They were handing out to all their cluents," Uladzislau from Minsk told Euroradio.
ТНК-ВР has confirmed the handing out of St George's ribbons at fuel stations in Minsk but declined to elucidate citing "the absence of the person in charge".
On May 6, the scanned copies of internal circulars from Belarusian ideology officials appeared on the Internet. The documents strongly recommended to refuse from using St George's ribbons during Victory Day celebrations and to replace them with state red-green symbols. On Ma 7, hypermarkets Euroopt and ProStore also backed off from their initial plan to hand out the controversial ribbons to their clients.
ТНК-ВР is a joint Russian-British holding company which, effective from March 2013, belongs to the Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft. The company's branch in Belarus supplies crude oil to Belarus refineries for processing.
Belaya Rus and BRSM: We will not use St George's ribbons
Photo from Facebook by Vladislav Ivansky
